I just finished it.
The good:
-Art and audio are still top notch. I don't think the music was quite as good as in the first game but it's still superb.
-The writing is not great but it is better than in the first game.
-It's pretty cool to have a game with such a big number of characters. Obviously there's not a whole lot of depth to most characters but it's quite neat to see the characters you managed to get through the first game show up here as well and actually have things to say. Yrsa is a good example.
-I played with Rook as my main character and the game certainly felt like a "natural fit" for playing him. We'll see if the Alette path also feels that way.
-Bolverk feels a bit forced at times (especially the VA) but it was cool to have a character like that to play also. Found the switching of viewpoints to work really well in this one.
-The story itself certainly has its ups and downs but on the whole it's a lot of fun to follow. I actually can't wait to see what will happen in the final game.
-New classes and abilities feel like good improvements to the combat system, they're fun to use.
The bad:
-The whole caravan system is, as mentioned before, as pointless here as it was before from a gameplay standpoint. I *think* the size of your caravan has repercussions in the dialogues and stuff though. But ultimately, yeah... it feels quite pointless which is a shame considering the whole game revolves around it. The game world is such a harsh and depressing place, and the game obviously makes a point of punishing you in terms of story, but the gameplay is like the complete opposite of this. It makes for a really weird contrast. And even considering that, it's *extremely* easy to keep your caravan well-fed and happy in this game. Even moreso than the first one. Perhaps it's because I imported a BS1 save, I'm not sure. But it *never* felt like a struggle to manage it in this one.
-I enjoy the combat system in itself in these games, despite the weirdness of it sometimes being better to leave enemies alive and all that, I like that it feels pretty unique. But they did not do a good enough job on making it better in this game despite what was promised (much like the caravan system). There are some new enemies but there's still a huge amount of sameyness and you'll still be facing a lot of ye old BS1 type of Dredge, and a more boring enemy I can't really imagine. There are also victory conditions for some fights but they feel like gimmicks and not really fun gameplay.
-There are times where it feels pretty railroady. I mean, it's obviously a linear a game in terms of where you go but some choices end up being convinient "fakes" to get you where you need to go for the story. There are also some annoyances. Like, at one point I had just upgraded one of my party-members quite a lot (spent a lot of renown) only to have the character I was *supposedly* controlling kill that character off in the next conversation. Thanks game.
-The ending... yeah, the biggest fucking cliffhanger ever and very abrupt. You thought the BS1 ending sucked? Hoo boy...
I still really enjoy both of these games. I love the world, the premise of the story, the atmosphere of it and I find the story itself to be really fun to follow. It's a really bumpy ride but I love that the games feel pretty unique and I can't wait to see the finale of it.